


Melts Away

by KrysKrossZee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bodyswap, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Multi, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV Male Character, POV Nymphadora Tonks, POV Remus Lupin, POV Third Person, Smut, Spooning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26586139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee
Summary: Sirius is sick of seeing Tonks and Remus moping about Grimmauld Place and pining after each other so he comes up with a not so cunning plan to get them talking.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23
Collections: Farewell to Summer: The 31 Flavors of Smut, Keep Calm Its Writing Bingo





	Melts Away

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the admins for hosting this fest. My prompts were Very Berry Strawberry, Body Swapping, and Spooning.
> 
> This fic has not been beta read (offers to beta read welcome, you can find me on Facebook as Z Krystyna Heber).
> 
> I also used this for 'write something that you wouldn't normally ' square in Keep Calm And Write Something's bingo event.

"What's wrong?"

Tonks didn't need to look up to know who the voice belonged to. She also didn't need to look up to know that the voice didn't belong to the person she had wanted to follow her out into the drawing-room. She tried to make a scene in order to grab Remus' attention but it seemed that had totally and utterly failed.

"It doesn't matter." She said quietly as she brought her knees up to her chest. She loved her cousin dearly but there was no way that she could have this conversation with him. For some reason, Sirius had this power over Remus that she couldn't even begin to understand. She envied it - she envied them.

"Looks like it does," Sirius commented as he dropped down onto the armchair opposite her. "You wouldn't be in here moping on your own if it was something that didn't matter, after all." He pointed out in a particularly unhelpful way.

"Please, Siri." Tonks didn't want to have to beg but it seemed that she wasn't going to have much of a choice. She knew he wanted to help but she didn't really think that there was much that he could do to help. Remus had made his choice, and she just had to accept that. A small voice in the back of her mind did like to remind her that she hadn't exactly given Remus all the options, but that was beside the point.

"Tonks…" Sirius began with a soft sigh. She knew that whatever he was going to say was an attempt to cheer her up but she didn't know if she could handle that today. She kind of needed him to be mad at her, but that would mean coming clean about her feelings for Remus. Remus who just so happened to be unashamedly attached to her favourite cousin.

"Listen, if I didn't have to be here because of Mad-Eye then I would clear off." She promised him, speaking before she had time to even process her own thoughts. She hadn't realised how much the non-rejection that she had just endured made her want to run away.

"You want to leave?" Sirius was frowning now. For someone whose name sounded like the word 'serious', it wasn't an expression that suited him well. "Why would you want to do that?"

It was Tonks' turn to sigh this time and she let herself hide her face against her legs. She wasn't ready for what felt like such a grown-up conversation but she was very aware that she didn't really have a choice. She had grown up feelings for another grown up, who was dating another grown up. Now was definitely the time to at least consider growing up.

"It's complicated." She whispered. She didn't know if Sirius could hear her or not, though chances were that he could, considering that his hearing was a lot more refined than other people's, something that she knew was all thanks to his animagus form and the excessive time that he had spent in his dog form over the years. She knew that it had been his only way of survival at times, but she didn't think that it was the best way to live.

"Complicated is my middle name," Sirius said softly, offering to listen even though Tonks had no way of knowing how to explain her predicament to him. She wanted someone that she couldn't have and he was the person in between them.

"Siri…" She began again. She could feel tears bubbling in her eyes. She couldn't stand that he was being so nice to her, not when he wanted the truth and she didn't think that he was going like what she had to say.

"It's Remus, right?" Sirius surprised her by asking before she even had the chance to get the words out.

"I - what?" She all but yelled, her eyes wide as she tried to figure out how he even knew to ask about the man that she had been in love with for the last year or so. "How did you -"

But he cut her off before she could finish her question with a shake of his head and a hand on her leg. "I just need to know if I'm right, Tonks." He said quietly. "You like him, right?"

Tonks managed the smallest of nods as she pushed his hand off of her knee, she had to wonder whether it made the situation better or worse than Sirius knew about her feelings towards the man that he'd clearly been sleeping with for the last two years. "Yeah." She managed to say, her voice a little shaky despite her trying to will herself to remain normal, to try and keep herself from sounding as if she was about to burst into tears now that her secret appeared to be out in the open. "He… He can't know." She added as she stood up, kind of hoping that he would walk away from her then and let her stew.

Sirius was silent for a moment and even though Tonks could see him from where she had started to pace back and forth, she didn't see him give any sort of sign that he was going to leave, she still hoped that he would. When he finally spoke he said "he does know" which was honestly not what Tonks wanted to hear. If Remus knew then really she needed to leave the country or risk dying from embarrassment.

"Fantastic." She muttered, mostly wishing that she could disappear somewhere now, but knowing that that wasn't exactly the safest thing to do just now. In her emotional turmoil, she knew that if she attempted to apparate now then she was likely to splinch.

"It's not like that, Tonks." She heard Sirius say, the words stopping her in her tracks. She still couldn't look at him, but at least now she had stopped pacing.

"What do you mean?" She asked slowly, frowning slightly as she tried to make sense of anything that he was saying. It was all starting to sound like gibberish to her, but that wasn't at all surprising.

"I mean…" Sirius took a deep breath before continuing. "I mean that he likes you too. He's just… conflicted."

This earned Tonks' full attention. That made no sense to her. How could Remus even think about her when he had Sirius, the man that he had been pining after for so long?

"Conflicted?" She repeated as she stared at him, trying to read his expression and trying not to get too frustrated when he was giving nothing away on his face. She wanted to understand the situation but it seemed that Sirius was going to make that difficult if not impossible.

"Yeah. He doesn't understand how it's possible to have feelings for more than one person at a time. I don't understand it either, but I want to see him happy and you're kinda key to making him happy." Sirius was standing up now and slowly he reached for her hands. "Say you'll help me?"

Tonks lifted an eyebrow ever so slightly. "Help you, how?" She had no idea what she was meant to do. If Remus had feelings for her while he was with Sirius then surely the best thing that she could do for them was to stay as far away from them as possible.

"Talk to him? Let him know that the feeling is mutual. Let him know that you want him as much as he wants you." Sirius sounded desperate and Tonks wasn't sure that she liked this side of him. She'd seen him desperate before, but that had been purely about survival, not about something as trivial as feelings.

Tonks pulled away from him, shaking her head. "If he has something to say to me, then he can come and find me."

"Oh for the love of Merlin!" Sirius groaned. "Why must you two act like children?"

Tonks raised an eyebrow as she looked over at him. "Probably cause I practically am a child and he's a repressed werewolf?" She suggested before she let out a sigh. "I'm not you. I can't just talk to him about things like that."

"You're not me…" Sirius repeated, humming to himself for a moment. "I think I have an idea."

Tonks couldn't help but frown slightly at that. There was something worrisome whenever Sirius had an idea, one that always made Tonks nervous. "Why don't I think I'll like this idea?"

* * *

"There you are," Remus mumbled as he slowly sat up and looked over at the door. He'd been waiting in Sirius' bed on his own for longer than he liked and now he was cold. It didn't take much for him to get cold in the first place. He wasn't the best at regulating his own body temperature, which was why he had hoped that the ever-hot Black was going to join him sooner rather than later.

"Yeah, sorry. I was talking to - I was talking." There was something slightly off about Sirius' voice but Remus couldn't put his finger on what it was and he was sure that if there was anything wrong then the man would just come out and say it. They were at that point in their relationship after all.

Instead of questioning it, Remus just opened his arms to beckon Sirius over. He was too tired and too cold to let any more time go to waste. He needed Sirius in the bed there with him, but it almost seemed as though Sirius didn't want to be there with him as he seemed to take his own sweet time to actually make his way to the bed. He did eventually sit on the edge of the bed, not as close to Remus as he would have liked, but he supposed he'd have to take it.

"Everything okay?" He asked as he sat up slowly. There was an expression on the man's face that Remus didn't think belonged to Sirius but to think it belonged to anyone else was crazy when it was Sirius' face that wore it.

"Yeah." His reply was all that convincing and although Remus had learned over the years when it was and wasn't appropriate to push the other man, today he was just going to have to fight his instincts and get him to open up.

He took Sirius' hand into his own and entwined their fingers together as he met his gaze. "Something's wrong." He said simply, deciding that the best approach might just be to be direct about it and not pussy-foot around the issue.

A look of panic flashed across Sirius' eyes. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared but it had definitely been there. "I just.. I think we should talk." Sirius' answer did not make Remus feel any better and in fact, made him worry more. He knew what it meant when people said they wanted to talk, it was never about good things.

"Okay." He said quietly, secretly pleased that Sirius didn't let go of his hands but also wondering why he didn't pull away if he was about to dump him. "So talk."

"You need to be honest with me - with yourself." Sirius began slowly, his words seemed rehearsed but not quite confident. "You need to tell me whether you have feelings for someone else."

Remus blinked a couple of times. This wasn't the first time that they had had this conversation, though he supposed he had never actually said her name aloud, they just both knew who he was referring to when he had mentioned his polyamorous feelings before.

"Why is this important right now?" He asked slowly, frowning slightly. "You know all about how I feel, Sirius. But you also know that I'm committed to you. She's. It wouldn't work with her." He said quietly. It often hurt him to even talk about how he couldn't be with Tonks. She didn't deserve to be burdened by everything that he was. That wasn't to say that Sirius did but Sirius had forced his way into Remus' life over two decades ago and he'd rooted himself in there whether Remus thought it was a good idea or not. There was still a chance for Tonks.

"Why wouldn't it?" Sirius pressed on, though now his eyes had dropped to their hands.

Remus watched him for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Tonks is young and carefree and she deserves to stay that way, don't you think?" He asked quietly with a slight shake of his head. He had to wonder if this was Sirius' way of telling him that he wanted to break up, that they should see other people. That wasn't something that he was at all comfortable with or wanted. He supposed it was selfish of him to want them  _ both _ at the same time.

"And what if I don't?" Sirius asked as he looked up again, his eyes meeting Remus' again. "What if I - what if I think that she deserves to choose her own happiness?"

Remus' eyes widened a little as he realised that was potentially the real selfish part, the fact that he was deciding what should make other people happy. "And what about you?" He asked after a moment or two. He didn't know how Sirius could even consider the idea of sharing him, but he seemed to at least be open to the idea.

"I want everyone to be happy." Sirius' words cut through the air of the bedroom. They seemed like the most obvious thing in the world and yet Remus had somehow completely overlooked them.

He pressed a kiss to the top of Sirius' head. "I'll talk to her tomorrow then." He tried to ignore the knot of anxiety that formed in his chest at that decision. He didn't think he was at all ready to lay his feelings out for the girl to see, and he knew there was also a large chance that she didn't feel the same.

"Why wait?" An all too familiar voice asked from the doorway. Remus felt his heart skip a beat but he forced himself to look up and meet the gaze of the very person that they had just been talking about. He didn't know if it made him even more nervous or not to see how she was just standing there, casually eating a tub of ice cream.

"Tonks. I - uh -" He stuttered out. He hadn't expected to be ambushed like this and he had no idea how to make the actual words form just then.

It didn't help when Tonks shook her head. "Guess again, Moony."

Remus blinked rapidly at that. Tonks was one of the only people that actually called him Remus, she never used his Marauder nickname. Only Sirius used that name now. His eyes widened as he looked between Tonks and Sirius (the latter had now gotten off the bed and moved away from him).

"What?" It wasn't the most eloquent way to ask what was going on, but at least it was the question that he wanted to ask.

"I got sick of you two pussyfooting around each other. Do you know how painful that is to watch?" Tonks asked before she popped another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"This was all his idea, I swear," Sirius added, his eyes on the floor in a way that was very unlike Sirius, in a way that was more similar to -

"You're playing a prank on me?" Remus asked as he got to his feet. He didn't understand the whys or even the hows - though he supposed he could take a guess at that - all he knew was that they had switched bodies which meant that he had just inadvertently confessed to the first girl he had ever loved, which she wasn't even herself.

"Not a prank!" Sirius - or was it Tonks? Remus was confusing himself now - held up his hands, his eyes wide as he stared at Remus, who honestly just wanted out of the room. They could play whatever game they wanted to but he wasn't going to be a part of this.

"Whatever it is, it's not funny," Remus said, his voice flat before he pushed past them both, not caring that he had just made Tonks (or Sirius) spill her ice cream all over herself. The distinct smell of strawberries filled the room at that moment and while ordinarily, that would have probably made him want to stay he just wasn't in the mood to deal with either of them.

Neither of them stopped him from leaving, which was a huge relief for Remus as he locked himself in his room. He didn't have the capacity to deal with the pair of them, not on top of the fact that he had just laid his emotions bare for both of them to see.

* * *

"Well, that could have gone better."

Sirius was sometimes too blunt, but Tonks couldn't even respond to him. She couldn't even make herself move. She had heard what she had wanted to hear but she hadn't even begun to process it before she had pretty much screwed up any chance that she had with Remus. She couldn't blame him for being angry with her. What they had done was pretty messed up now that she was able to look back on it.

Sirius could be pretty convincing when he wanted to be, which was what she had gone along with it in the first place, but it seemed that it had almost completely blown up in their faces. A small voice in the back of her mind told her that that was exactly what Sirius had wanted, that he had wanted her to crash and burn at the first hurdle, but she quickly told that voice to be quiet. He had made Remus mad at himself in the process and that felt as if it would be counterproductive.

"Tonks…?" Sirius' voice was a little softer now, his hand on her arm, though honestly, it freaked her out more than a little to know that it was actually her own hand that was comforting her. "This will wear off soon and then you can go and talk to him again?"

"I doubt he'll even look at me ever again," Tonks muttered under her breath, running her fingers through her hair - or well, his hair. She dropped her hands back to her side and let out a small groan. "I'm just gonna turn in."

"No!" Sirius' eyes widened and he grabbed her shoulders, practically rooting her to the spot. Tonks couldn't make herself meet his gaze. She couldn't look herself in the eye just then, especially not while knowing that she had just royally screwed herself over. "No, please stay."

She knew that it was all probably sinking in for Sirius as well, that they had screwed up, but she didn't know how she was meant to help him when she was so clearly freaking out.

"Okay." She agreed quietly after a while, her eyes flickering to the door and then back to him. She didn't know how Remus would even react if he came back and found the cousins still in the wrong bodies and the same room. She didn't really want to think about that if she was completely honest, but she knew that it was something that they would probably have to deal with sooner rather than later.

Sirius let go of her and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed. Tonks chewed on her lip slightly as she watched him before she sat down beside him.

"Why did I let you talk me into that?" She asked with a slight shake of her head, ignoring the almost intoxicatingly smell of strawberries that soaked the clothes that she had loaned him.

"You got the answers you've been looking for, didn't you?" An eyebrow lifted slightly as Sirius spoke and had this been under any other circumstances then Tonks would probably have laughed at how comical this whole situation was.

"Uh, yeah." She had to agree with that, but at what cost remained to be seen. She could have coped with never knowing either way - even though she was doing a poor job of being able to deal with the fact that he was practically all over Sirius all the time. But having Remus actively mad at her was a whole other cauldron of skrewts.

She let out a sigh as he leaned against her. He really was something else, that was for sure. And for some reason, he continued to be able to worm his way into her heart, despite her having been brought up to despise him for what he had supposedly done to the Potters. Of course, they all knew that that was utter bullshit now, but her family had only consisted of herself, her mum, and her dad before the start of that summer; before the Order had reformed and she had been all but roped into joining by her mentor.

* * *

"I'm really not in the mood, Pads," Remus muttered when he heard the bedroom door creak open. He didn't need to look up from the bed where he had curled up to know who it was. He could smell the remains of the ice cream flavour from where he lay. He wanted to yell at the man to get out, to leave him alone. There was no way that he would be able to look at him while he was in Tonks' body after all.

"It's not Sirius.." The voice that answered him was a little hesitant as if knowing that she shouldn't be there. "It's me."

Remus sat up slowly, against his better judgement. His eyes flickered to the tub of ice cream in her hands that he realised was the source of the smell. She was still wearing Sirius' clothes.

He was furious at the pair of them, but the idea of sending her away was enough to make him feel nauseous. They needed to have a proper conversation, and he supposed that there was no time like the present.

"Why would you agree to any of his ideas?" He asked slowly. He wondered if she was just that desperate to embarrass him; if Sirius was just that desperate to embarrass him.

"I… I wanted to know for sure." Her voice was barely above a whisper but somehow it carried through the room and practically wrapped itself around him. "Sirius said we should talk and I just - I didn't know how to. I know that wasn't the way to go about it but…" She trailed off, the 'but' hung in the air between them in a way that made Remus wholly uncomfortable.

"What?" He asked after a few moments when she didn't continue. He had to know if this was all a game to her or if there was more to it. He found himself hoping that there was more to it. He didn't want to believe that either of the people that he loved was cruel after all.

"I like you, Remus. I really like you, but I didn't know how to tell you. I… for some reason I thought that this would work." Tonks stuttered out, her hands visibly tightening on the ice cream tub before she took a hesitant step towards Remus.

"You went about it in the completely wrong way." He said matter-of-factly as he stood up. He took the ice cream from her and after taking a spoonful for himself (it would have been rude not to, considering the fact that it was his favourite flavour), he set it down on the bedside table. He took Tonks' hands into his own as he let his anger dissipate. In these trying times, there really was no point in holding a grudge. "I'm glad that I know now though."

Tonks' eyes - which were a beautiful clear blue just then - widened. Remus could see himself reflected in them, which made his heart skip a beat. She truly was fascinating. He knew that there were still things that he needed to talk to her about, that he needed to talk to Sirius about, but none of that mattered as he stood there with her.

Gently he pressed his lips to hers, and like a total cliche, the rest of the house, and even the rest of the world completely melted away. It was different from kissing Sirius but after that initial fleeting thought, he found that he wasn't comparing the two of them. He found that he wasn't even really thinking about Sirius at all as his hands moved from hers to cup Tonks' soft cheeks in his palms. Her breath was warm against his lips as he pulled back ever so slightly, unable to believe that he had just kissed a girl who was over a decade he then him.

"You…" She began to speak but Remus shook his head and captured her lips with his again.

He didn't want to talk, not tonight. He just wanted to feel her lips against his again, to feel her body pressed up against his. It was something that he had only let his thoughts play within his wildest daydreams, but here he was making it a reality now as he ran his thumbs over her cheeks before sliding one hand down her back to the small of her back. He pulled her close to his, ticking her body against his. He wasn't surprised that she fitted so perfectly. It just made sense.

He was glad that the very berry strawberry ice cream was still there to overpower the smell of Sirius that he was sure was going to come wafting off of the clothes the girl was wearing. Sometimes it sucked to have wolf-like senses, other times he did enjoy it.

Without letting himself overthink it, something that didn't come easily to him, he removed the offending shirt that was just that little too big for her anyway. He was surprised that she put up no resistance to him undressing her and was even more surprised when she was the one that was kissing him. She was a bit more forceful, a bit more decisive about what it was that she wanted. He hadn't even considered before tonight that she might have wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Her skin was soft, like velvet beneath his touch as his fingers traced over her skin. Her own fingers were undoing the buttons on his shirt as she gently nudged him towards the bed and Remus was glad that her want to talk had disappeared. Remus' shirt fell to the floor just before his legs hit the bed and he dropped down onto it.

Tonks wasted no time in climbing on top of him, straddling him as she leaned down to press kisses along his neck and collarbone. Remus let out a groan, his eyes rolling for a moment before he realised that she was kissing lower, her lips now on his stomach and her fingers undoing his jean buttons. He could see Sirius' jeans hanging off her hips as she bent over him, and while a voice in the back of his mind was telling him that this was happening all too fast, another slightly louder voice was telling it to shut up and telling him to get her naked.

He'd never wanted to see a girl naked before. Honestly, before he'd met Tonks a few months ago, he had only ever wanted to see Sirius naked, he'd only ever wanted to have Sirius' lips on his skin, to have his own lips touch Sirius' skin. But that had all changed when this spunky woman had walked into Grimmauld Place. And now here they were.

He slid her jeans down over her waist, a soft chuckle escaping him when he saw that she wasn't wearing underwear. He supposed it wouldn't have made sense to wear her own when she was Sirius, and wearing his would have just been too weird.

He moved to press a kiss to her hip, still unable to get over just how soft her skin was. She let out a small noise that he couldn't even describe just before Remus rolled them over so that he was on top now. He kicked his own jeans off all the way before he kissed his way up from her hip, along an imaginary line from her naval up to her chest where his mouth found her breasts. One hand massaged one breast, the other kept him steady on the bed while his mouth found her nipple.

His tongue ran over the skin there before he took her nipple into his mouth. Her back arched underneath him as he sucked. He couldn't help but smile against her skin when she moaned. The female form was not one that he knew well, but his body seemed to know what to do without needing to consult his brain, luckily for him.

He shifted positions when her nipple had hardened so that his mouth could work over the other. Tonks' eyes were well and truly in the back of her head now, which only made him smirk against her skin. His lips met hers again after a few moments and as she kissed him hungrily, he slid inside of her.

A soft gasp came from Tonks but she didn't break the kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Remus moved slowly but deliberately, his every move seemingly calculated, but really he was just following his instincts, following what his body told him to do. She grabbed onto him as if he was her anchor, and Remus would have argued that she was that for him at that moment. Without her underneath him, he would have floated away.

He moved slowly, thrusting inside her as her nails dug into his shoulder blades. It occurred to him briefly that she would be able to feel, if not see all of his scars, but as her lips met his neck and a groan escaped him, he found that he didn't care. She didn't seem to care. She seemed to want his imperfect body as much as he wanted hers.

He slid deeper inside of her, their bodies pressed tightly against each other again and once again he found himself thinking about how she just  _ fitted _ as if she was made for him. Was that on purpose? He knew that she could change her appearance at will after all, but he liked to think that her body was  _ meant  _ for this moment.

He moved faster, his body working of its own accord, but as long as she was touching him, kissing on him, her teeth now grazing his skin, he was definitely in the present. She nipped at his skin and he let out a guttural moan that sounded more like a growl. He could feel her smirking against his skin before she sucked where she had just nipped.

He slowed down again, his whole body quivering now and all too aware of his racing heart. He hadn't ever had an out-of-body experience before but he was sure that it was something like this.

Then her lips were back on his and she was kissing him as if her life depended on it. Her hips arched upwards and her nails dug deeper into his back.

He had to pull out then, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he managed not to cum inside her, or on the bedsheets, even though he didn't usually sleep in this he'd anyway, it didn't seem like the best place to do it. He reached for his wand with his free hand, cleaning up before he leaned down to press a soft kiss to Tonks' lips.

His brain was trying to start processing and obsessing over what had just happened, but Remus pushed his thoughts away as Tonks pulled him down beside her.

"Thank you." Her words were a breathy whisper, her fingers now running over one of his many scars. "I - just - thank you."

Remus gave her a soft smile before he gently rolled her onto her side and he moved to lie behind her. It wasn't very often that he got to be the big spoon - that was usually Sirius' place - but he had to admit that he quite enjoyed being there, having her warm body pressed up against his.

There was no time to obsess over anything because nothing else mattered except for the fact that he was there with her. His mind did flicker to Sirius once or twice, but as if she could read his thoughts Tonks would touch him, stroke him in some way that would bring him back to the present, back to the pair of them lying there together.

Nothing else mattered just then, not even the very berry strawberry ice cream that had well and truly melted on the bedside table. He pressed a soft kiss to the side of Tonks' neck as he let out a content sigh. And that's exactly what he was - content.


End file.
